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Rate the Chicago Skyline!

  • 10

    Votes: 1,389 56.4%
  • 9.5

    Votes: 378 15.3%
  • 9

    Votes: 278 11.3%
  • 8.5

    Votes: 95 3.9%
  • 8

    Votes: 66 2.7%
  • 7.5

    Votes: 29 1.2%
  • 7

    Votes: 30 1.2%
  • 6.5

    Votes: 9 0.4%
  • 6

    Votes: 6 0.2%
  • 5.5

    Votes: 10 0.4%
  • 5

    Votes: 11 0.4%
  • 4.5

    Votes: 6 0.2%
  • 4

    Votes: 9 0.4%
  • 3.5

    Votes: 31 1.3%
  • 3 ->

    Votes: 116 4.7%

Chicago - USA

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688K views 3K replies 963 participants last post by  prageethSL 
#1 ·
Chicago, IL








 
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5
G
#28 ·
Chicago is certainly a 10/10!
It's skyscraper nirvana to me. The Windy City
is obviously one of the Big 3 of the world.
I love the huge scale of the downtown. Plus, it's
all cleaned up, safe to walk around. Lovely parks,
the lake, the history. I love Chicago!
 
G
#35 ·
<table cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 width=98% class="quoteBox">
<td align=left valign=center> <smallfont> <b>Quote</B> <I>originally posted by Kevinkhoo1986 </i></b> </smallfont> </td>
<tr><td align=left valign=top>8.5 from me!!!10/10 just for hong kong and new york. John hancock ruined the skyline in chicago..:D and also the big black box ;)</td></tr>
</table>


Honestly people, is it so hard to say "Sears Tower?"

Its sounds quite primitive to call it "big black box."

Also, how on EARTH can you say that John Hancock and Sears Tower ruined the skyline? CHRIST!! They are make the skyline!
 
#39 ·
I love how there's always a troll who will give a city like Chicago or New York a "3 or less rating" :lol:

What people don't realize is that both of these cities have more great architecture than you can see in a "skyline shot". Also, they're both cities whose skylines have been growing for over 120 years!

You see "boxes" because the age of the supertall skyscraper in the U.S. was the late '60s, early '70s, when boxes prevailed and Sears, Aon, Hancock, and the WTC were all built. There's more than enough interesting architecture in Chicago. There are old buildings along the Michigan Avenue wall by guys like Louis Sullivan. Hell, he created the Chicago School of Architecture- not an actual school, but a design style which, to an extent, still dominates what our idea of what a skyscraper is today. Chicago has one of the most extensive collections of buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe anywhere (although if you hate boxes you wouldn't like his work). And it has more than its share of great post-modern architecture (the Thompson Center and Sofitel Hotel being two of my personal favorites).

You also have to build skyscrapers that don't clash with the city. If the Tapei Financial Center was built in Chicago, it would make Chicagoans vomit. And there are certain styles that work in tropical environments that wouldn't work in a Northern climate.

I'm always surprised, as well, by the extent to which people are impressed with gaudy neon lights. It's seems like you could put neon pink/green/blue/red/yellow/orange/purple lights all over the skyline of Tulsa, OK, and people here would love it.

Only time will tell if the "cool looking" buildings going up in Asian cities will be considered great or even decent architecture in 50 years time. I'm inclined to believe that most of them won't be.
 
#764 ·
To be honest there is a reactionary tone to this. You make some indeed a lot of sense but your implied view that those who favour Asian skylines are duped by neon is marely as assumption.

Here we are rating skylines not overall architectural worth so whether or not a city has great architecture below the skyline is irrelevant. My city, Paris, has if I may say so without being pompous, no end of great urban architecture but would not compare with chicago as a skyline per se. Paris is a bigger, more beautiful ( IMO ), more architectually diverse city but its skyline doesn't even begin to compare.

Here we are talking skylines and one thing Chicago lacks is HK's geography which is really what impresses. The mountains behind, the view from across the water, the sheer dense jungle nature of the place are much more impressive than the neon which I admit adds to the attraction.
 
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#45 ·
Chicago has an amazing skyline. I remember flying into Chi-town and the plane did a 360 from the south around the downtown area over the lake and then we landed at O'Hare. I was on the left side of the plane so I got to see the entire skyline right there in front of my eyes, I was totally mesmerized. The mix of really tall box buildings and then a number of older historic buildings, and the lakeside location with the Chicago river and its bridges winding through it, make this skyline one of my favorites. I give it a 10!
 
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